Antonio Felix Da Costa won the first race of the Formula E Season 5 competing in the Gen2 electric race cars, while Mahindra’s Jerome d’Ambrosio finished third taking the first podium of the season.

Mahindra Racing has kickstarted the 2018-19 Formula E Season 5 with a bang, taking a podium in the season opener. Mahindra’s Jerome d’Ambrosio finished third in the Ad Diriyah e-Prix competing in the Gen2 electric race car. BMW i Andretti Autosport’s Antonio Felix da Costa won the season opener, while reigning champion Jean Eric-Vergne of Techeetah took second place on the podium. The Ad Diriyah e-Prix saw a host of changes to the electric motorsport series with a completely new venue, more powerful cars, and with new teams and drivers on board.

Antonio Da Costa won the Formula E season opener for BMW Andretti Autosport

Eric Vergne finished second after passing Ambrosio in the final stages of the race, after a late safety car allowed the driver to catch up to the Mahindra car. Meanwhile, Da Costa was unstoppable having started on pole and continued to hold the position till the end of the race.

Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans finished fourth, a little over a second after Ambrosio and was followed by Andre Lotterer of DS Techeetah who finished fifth. The DS Techeetah drivers though were forced to serve drive-through penalties for going over the maximum permitted power while using re-generation, which dropped them into the pack.

Jerome d’Ambrosio has pinned Mahindra in the lead for Formula E Season 5

Renault Dams’ Sebastian Buemi finished sixth followed by teammate Oliver Rowland. The final spots in the top 10 list were taken by Team Abt’s Daniel Abt and Lucas di Grassi, with Nelson Piquet Jr. of Jaguar Racing took P10. Making his Formula E debut, Felipe Massa of Venturi finished at P14 after serving a drive through penalty for the same reason as the Techeetah drivers.

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Lastly, Felix Rosenqvist was standing in for Pascal Wehrlein at Mahindra Racing but did not finish after stopping on the start/finish straight early on. The racer did, however, overtake and move up to P12 in the final parts of the race.